


share these memories with me?

by ZionPhoenix



Series: Domestic Immortals and their Shenanigans [9]
Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy Mention, Booker Mention, POV Nile Freeman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26361574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZionPhoenix/pseuds/ZionPhoenix
Summary: It takes Nile nearly two months to notice them.ORNile gets lost in memories.
Series: Domestic Immortals and their Shenanigans [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863277
Comments: 43
Kudos: 239





	share these memories with me?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sailingthecs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailingthecs/gifts).



> Here, have some Nile Feels (TM) everyone <3 and especially sailingthecs, as promised.
> 
> No beta, as always, let me know if you find mistakes.
> 
> Enjoy!

It takes Nile a bit over two months to really notice them. She's in the living room of their current safe house in Rome, listening to Nicky bustling around in the kitchen while she reads. Andy and Joe have gone out.

She closes her book and moves to set it down on the small table next to the couch when she sees the notebook. It's the same size of Joe's other notebooks she's seen over the past few weeks, but she also knows for a fact that the one he was sketching in the day before is a different colour. And that he took it into the bedroom with him when they had all said their good nights. She swaps it with her book, tracing her finger along the cracked spine. It looks like it's been opened and closed a lot, which isn't surprising with the amount of time Joe spends pouring over his notebooks, usually either sketching or writing.

Nile knows that she can always ask him to see what he's working on, and that he has no problem with people looking over his shoulder while he does, but somehow this feels different. Nicky's voice pulls her out of her thoughts. "You can look through it, if you want." He's standing in the door frame to the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel. "Joe won't mind. In fact, he loves people looking at his work and giving him feedback. And asking for the stories behind them. He'll be delighted to actually tell you the real stories. I'd be as well."

"As long as I won't find only drawings of you naked." Nicky snorts out a laugh, and turns around, looking back at her over his shoulder.

"You can't believe everything Booker tells you." He goes back into the kitchen, and Nile looks back down at the book in her lap, ignoring the implication of his comment for now.

She traces her finger over the cover, and then opens it randomly. On the left side is a sketch of Nicky, labelled "Venice, Italy 26.07.2013". It shows Nicky from the side, sitting on a window sill with his legs drawn up, his arm resting on his knees. He's looking out the window, at the open sea, and what seems to be a sunset. The sketch on the right shows a market, busy with people, from above, like from a roof top. It doesn't look like any market Nile has been to. It's labelled for the day after the other sketch, same location. Underneath the label is another one, in what seems to be a code. She makes a mental note to ask Joe or Nicky about it later, and flips to another spread.

On the left, Andy is smiling at her from the page, seated on a couch, elbows on her knees, looking up at someone not on the page, but the grin on her lips and the sparkle in her eyes still clearly visible. On the right, Booker is sitting at a table, whiskey glass in hand and only partly on the table. He's swirling his drink, and Joe even drew the ice cubes in the glass. He's smirking at a person not pictured. Their hand is though, and Nile recognises Nicky's hand and forearm. Mostly because of the money he is clearly dropping on the table in front of Booker. They were betting. She takes another look at Booker's face. He may be smirking, with one of his eyes crinkling at the corner, but there seems to be a lingering sadness as well. Both sketches are labelled "Prague, Czech Republic, 12.11.2013".

She keeps flipping through the pages. It's not just drawings and sketches, there's a lot of poetry and sometimes a few paragraphs of prose as well. In most of the corners and margins small notes are written, sometimes they take up entire pages. Random thoughts, memories, plans, and even grocery lists, apparently. Most of them are in languages she doesn't know, but shopping lists and itineraries are pretty universal. She doesn't notice how she gets lost in the book, until someone sits down beside her. Nile looks up to see Joe smiling at her.

"Oh, sorry, Nicky said it'd be alright, so…."

"Don't worry. He was right, it's okay. I love it when people look through my work."

"That's what Nicky said, too." She answers, although it is more of a grumble. Joe laughs.

"Yeah, well what can I say, Nicky knows me really well." He winks at her, and Nile pulls a face. She looks back down and flips through to find one of the sketches with the code.

"What does this mean?" She points at the label.

"That one says 'Alexandria, 1157'. I came up with a code to label sketches I make of memories, in case anyone else takes a look at them."

"You still remember things from 900 years ago?" She tries to keep the hope out of her voice, but isn't sure she succeeds completely.

"Some stuff, yes. Other things I forget until I remember them in flashes, small scenes, when they're triggered by a smell or noise. Most of the sketches are these kind of memories. I try to get them down before they fade away again. It's not always easy to date and place them though. Luckily I have Nicky to help me. Well, most of them, anyways. If they're from the early 12th century, he's not able to help. Well, and of course with those from my first life, and the times we were separated." He smiles again.

"Why can't he help you with the early 12th century?"

"Because after we died it took us about 40 years to start travelling together." Nicky had come into the living room, and takes a seat on Nile's other side, lightly traces the outline of one of the houses in the sketch. "We can tell you the story sometime, if you like. But for now, we'll eat. Dinner is ready, and Andy should be finished with setting the table."

After that, Nile looks through every notebook she sees lying around, wanting to know as much as she can about the history they have lived through. Sometimes it still makes her head spin, that they have actually loved through history, and that she will as well. She asks them questions about the pictured scenes and memories, about the notes scribbled everywhere by not just Joe, but also Nicky and sometimes even Andy and Booker.

It takes two years before she sees herself on the page. They're back in Salzburg, where they stayed for a few days shortly after the Merrick debacle, and haven't been there since. She picks up the notebook on the kitchen table and blows off the dust, before sitting down crosslegged on the couch, opening it on the first page. As always, she takes her time, taking in everything she can.

She doesn't notice when the dates start approaching the day of her first death. There's one labelled as a few days before, Nicky in a café, talking to one of the waiters. Trabzon, Turkey. The next page is missing, ripped out roughly. She traces the jagged edge like she did the spine of the first notebook, wondering about what happened, and then she turns the page.

It takes her a second to realise that that is her on the page. Well, not just her, Nicky and Booker are on her sides, but that's her. Covered with blood and Andy's labrys in her hand. She doesn't need to look at the label to know what it says. On the other page another sketch of her, leaning against the back rest of a chair in Copley's house. Her breath catches. She suddenly realises that she had sat down next to Joe, and looks up, only to find him already looking at her. She doesn't realise she's crying until the first tear drops onto the pages, then curses and quickly closes the book. Nile wipes at her eyes, trying to hold back her tears, to no avail.

"I ripped out the page to give it to Andy. It's a sketch of you and other things we saw in our dream when you died. I'm pretty sure it's tucked between the pages of another notebook." Joe picks the book from her hands and opens it to the drawings of her. "Let me tell you the story behind these. They feature a young woman, beautiful, strong in every sense of the word, smart, kind, and full of love for the world. She came into our lives unexpectedly, and at a very difficult time. Because of her, we came out of that time alive and with a renewed purpose. She gave her life for us, without really knowing us. She is what kept us together at a time when we would have fallen apart. She's a very important part of our family, and we love her very much."

A heavy sob wrecks through Nile, and she all but throws herself into Joe's arms, crying heavily into his shoulder. He rubs soothing circles into her back, mumbling Arabic into her ear as she trembles. It takes a few minutes for her tears to stop, and when they do she sits back, Joe's hands immediately coming up to wipe away the tracks they left behind. "I love you, too." She doesn't trust herself to smile just yet, instead she leans into his touch, briefly closing her eyes.

"I know. We know." He drops his hands to pick up the notebook again, looking at her questioningly. She takes it and a few deep breaths to calm her still racing heart, before she opens it again. Despite not seeing it, she knows that Joe is smiling as he opens his current notebook to resume sketching.

When she glances over to him a few minutes later while she turns a page, she is less surprised by seeing herself coming to life on the page, crosslegged on a couch, bent over a book in her lap. She smiles to herself, and dives back into their memories.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> As always, kudos are appreciated, and comments literally make my day.


End file.
